Add Tavis Smiley to the long list of political pundits who’ve been denounced by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
Trump slammed the liberal-leaning PBS commentator on Twitter Monday, calling Smiley a “hater” and a “racist.” In the same tweet, Trump also criticized ABC’s George Stephanopoulos for inviting Smiley onto his program.
Why does @ThisWeekABC w/ @GStephanopoulos allow a hater & racist like @tavissmiley to waste good airtime? @ABC can do much better than him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2016
During a segment Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Smiley said he was “tickled” by Trump’s recent discussion of Ted Cruz’s Canadian birth status.
“What troubles me though is that — that Trump is still to my mind at least an unrepentant, irascible religious and racial arsonist and so, when we talk about how Trump is rising in the polls, you can’t do that absent the kind of campaign he’s running,” Smiley told Stephanopoulos
Trump has used his personal Twitter account to strike back at a handful of political pundits this election cycle, including notable conservative commentators Karl Rove, George Will and Rich Lowry.
